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• And our full coverage of the war in Ukraine can be found here.

Today's writers were Laura Gozzi, Thomas Mackintosh, Rachel Russell and Charley Adams.

The page was edited by Andrew Humphrey, Marita Moloney and Alexandra Fouché.

It's been a busy start to the week for Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky as his US counterpart Joe Biden paid him a visit first thing on Monday.

Here are some of the highlights of the day:

• US President Joe Biden made a surprise visit to Kyiv - his first since the start of the war. He left Ukraine early on Monday afternoon ahead of a three-day visit to Poland
• Before leaving, Biden and Zelensky gave a joint address in Kyiv, where Zelensky thanked Biden for the "unwavering" support Ukraine had received from the US
• Biden also pledged another $500m in military aid including weapons and moves to further tighten sanctions against Russia
• The US president received praise for his visit to the country, with the trip being described as “very important” in showing Russia that it is not winning the war
• Meanwhile, EU foreign ministers have been meeting in Brussels to discuss the bloc's latest sanctions package against Russia, which will be announced over the course of the week
• Russian President Putin is due to give his State of the Union speech on Tuesday that will be largely about the war in Ukraine - just a day after Biden said he was "dead wrong" on the conflict and warned the US would back Ukraine in its fight against Russia for "as long as it takes"

US President Joe Biden tweeted a little earlier at the end of his surprise visit to Ukraine.

"Putin thought Ukraine was weak and the West was divided. He thought he could outlast us," he said.

"He was just plain wrong. One year later, here we stand together - united with the people of Ukraine."

In a separate tweet, he shared pictures of his meeting with Zelensky and said the US would support Ukraine "for as long as it takes".

Further EU sanctions against Russia should be approved by the end of the week at the latest, according to the bloc’s foreign policy chief.

Speaking at a press conference in Brussels, Joseph Borrell said the measures would target four Russian banks, as well as imports and exports.

He told reporters it would be "approved in the next hours" or at least before Friday, according to Reuters.

It comes after foreign ministers met in Brussels to discuss the bloc's latest sanctions package against Russia.

The 10th package of sanctions, which still require the unanimous support of all EU states, would target rubber imports and exports including heavy vehicles.

More now on President's Biden's "historic" visit to Kyiv, the importance of which is difficult to overestimate, according to an adviser to Ukraine's defence ministry.

Yuriy Sak says Biden's surprise arrival shows how important it is that Ukraine wins in the fight against its Russian invaders.

"We have shown to the world during the last 12 months that we are committed to protecting our country, we are committed to protecting [the] European future, we are fighting for the global values of democracy and freedom," he told the BBC World Service's Newshour programme.

"And of course today's visit highlights and underlines this simple truth that today Ukraine is on the frontier of global freedom and the Western allies stand with us firmly until our victory."

How Biden's surprise visit was kept a secretpublished at 17:16 Greenwich Mean Time 20 February 2023

17:16 GMT 20 February 2023

Sarah Smith
North America Editor

Image source, PA Media

It was an audacious trip almost unheard of for a US president.

Appearing in a war zone under regular attack, White House officials describe Joe Biden's unexpected visit to Ukraine's capital Kyiv as "unprecedented in modern times".

They say previous presidential trips to wartime Iraq and Afghanistan had the back up of a heavy US military presence.

And despite widespread speculation among the press corps that Biden might be planning a trip to Ukraine while he was in Poland, the visit still took everyone completely by surprise.

The sight of him appearing beside President Volodymyr Zelensky in the heart of Kyiv and under the sound of air raid sirens, makes a louder statement than anything he can say in a speech in Poland.

"It was risky and should leave no doubt in anyone's mind that Joe Biden is a leader who takes commitment seriously," said White House communications director Kate Bedingfield.

• Read the full story of how Joe Biden made it to Kyiv here

We heard earlier that President Biden has promised almost $500m (£415m) worth of weapons to Ukraine, including extra artillery ammunition and anti-armour weapons.

The US president announced his weapons pledge during a surprise visit to Kyiv today.

In a subsequent statement, US Secretary of State Antony Blinken has said an extra $10m (£8.3m) is also being authorised to provide emergency assistance to keep Ukraine's energy infrastructure up and running in the face of Russia's attacks.

The US continues to "rally the world to support Ukraine", said Blinken, adding that: "We applaud the more than 50 countries who have come together in solidarity with Ukraine as it defends its sovereignty and territorial integrity.

Biden's visit couldn't have come at a more dramatic timepublished at 16:43 Greenwich Mean Time 20 February 2023

16:43 GMT 20 February 2023

John Simpson
World Affairs Editor

As a move on the geopolitical chessboard, Biden's visit comes at a highly critical moment. Vladimir Putin is to make a major statement tomorrow about the future of the war.

And China's top diplomat has just arrived in Moscow at a time when the Americans are warning that China's thinking of supplying Russia with weapons.

For his part, Ukraine's President Zelensky is in an optimistic mood. He told me the other day that Ukraine just had to hold on until it could launch its own counter offensive.

But the EU's foreign affairs Chief Joseph Borrell gave a stark warning yesterday that unless Europe supplied Ukraine with more weapons, the war would be lost.

So President Biden's appearance in Kyiv couldn't have happened at a more dramatic time.

It was a rallying cry to the West ,a warning to Russia and China, and above all a binding assurance to Ukraine that the US wouldn't let it be defeated.

Diplomats with long memories are already comparing it to President Kennedy's speech at the Berlin Wall in 1961.

US President Joe Biden has today made a surprise visit to Kyiv, as the first anniversary of Russia's invasion of Ukraine approaches.

Ukraine's President Zelensky thanked Biden for his support and described the visit as "the most important visit in the history of Ukrainian-American relations".

Image source, Reuters

Image source, Reuters

Image source, Reuters

US President Joe Biden said Kyiv had "captured a part of my heart" after his surprise visit to the Ukrainian capital today.

He has since shared a note he left to mark his visit in which he thanked President Zelensky for his welcome and praised his courage and leadership.

Prime Minister Fumio Kishida has said Japan will offer Ukraine a further $5.5bn (£4.5bn) in financial support as the one-year anniversary of the war breaking out approaches this week.

Japan had already given Ukraine around $600m, as well as hundreds of millions of dollars' worth of emergency humanitarian assistance, according to the prime minister's office.

Kishida, speaking at a think tank symposium in Tokyo, said: "There is still a need to assist people whose livelihoods have been destroyed by the war, and to restore destroyed infrastructure."

He also announced Japan would host a video conference of the G7 leaders with Zelensky on Friday, the day of the invasion's anniversary.

Ukraine's defence minister has alluded to the pledge of further military support by comparing the Russian invasion to the battle of David and Goliath.

Oleksii Reznikov said on Twitter, external: "No-one believed that David would defeat Goliath, but it happened thanks to that stone in a sling. In our case, David, with the help of the weapons from our friends, will defeat Goliath."

It follows an unannounced visit by US President Joe Biden to Kyiv today, where he promised a new military aid package for Ukraine worth $500m (£415m).

In an interview with Forbes magazine on Sunday, external, Reznikov said the world "now believes it’s possible to stop Russia on the battlefield".

"Our president, Zelensky, together with the US and Europe, let the entire world know how Ukraine would fight 'the second army in the world', and the world believes that's possible," he added.

Adam Easton
Reporting from Warsaw

Poland’s Prime Minister Mateusz Morawiecki has said many Western politicians found it difficult to accept the idea that Russia could invade Ukraine.

“For many, Putin’s decision to attack Ukraine was as difficult to accept as Copernicus’ theses that the Earth revolves around the Sun,” the prime minister said during a speech in the Polish astronomer’s hometown of Torun today.

“The greenhouse conditions in which many Western politicians and Western elites have come to live in have put their minds to sleep,” he added.

Biden was offered other locations in Ukraine to visitpublished at 15:08 Greenwich Mean Time 20 February 2023

15:08 GMT 20 February 2023

Lyse Doucet
Chief international correspondent, in Kyiv

Image source, Reuters

You don't get much more powerful than Joe Biden and in his address today he emphasised he was the first world leader to speak to President Zelensky when Russian troops first rumbled over the border last year.

He mentioned in his comments when he spoke to President Zelensky he could hear the explosions in the backdrop, and one year on here we are.

Now, Biden is back in Kyiv, in the middle of a war and the choice of Kyiv is very symbolic.

We understand from sources that other locations were suggested to the American president, including Lviv in the west, which would have been much safer and easier to get to.

But he made the 10-hour train journey to the capital to send as strong a symbol as possible, all the while discussing the very difficult substance of this war which seems to have no end.

Earlier, Zelensky praised the visit of the US president as "the most important visit in the history of Ukrainian-American relations".

He said Ukraine was fighting "for its freedom and freedom for all Europeans, for all people of the free world...

"It emphasises how much we have already achieved and what historical results we can achieve together with the whole world, with Ukraine, with the United States, with the whole of Europe.

Sarah Smith
North America Editor

Image source, Reuters

There had been widespread speculation among the press corps that President Biden might be planning a trip to Kyiv. Yet today's visit still took everyone completely by surprise.

According to the White House schedule issued yesterday, Biden was due to fly to Warsaw later tonight.

There were two suspiciously lengthy gaps in the itinerary of his two-day trip to Poland and we wondered if that might be when he would slip into Ukraine. Instead, journalists in Washington woke up to find the trip had already happened.

Air Force One took off at 04.15 EST (09.15 GMT) on Sunday. The small pool of reporters travelling with the president were sworn to secrecy and not allowed to report the trip until after his arrival. BBC teams in Kyiv had noticed increased security measures around the city, but did not know for sure who was due to visit.

President Biden made a 10-hour train journey to Kyiv from Poland, as air travel is not safe in the war zone, leaving reporters like me, who thought they were travelling with the president tonight, making a trip on an aircraft that will not be called Air Force One. That call sign is only used when the president is on board.

Apart from the rather high-profile visit of a certain Mr Biden, high ranking officials from other countries are visiting Ukraine this week to share their support for the country.

Members from Israel's house of representatives - otherwise known as Knesset - were pictured on social media arriving in Kyiv today.

These included former Israeli Health Minister Yuli-Yoel Edelstein and Ze'ev Elkin, who is also a Knesset member and deputy chairman of the Tikva New Hope party.

Scott Lucas, professor of International politics at University College Dublin, says Biden’s visit to Kyiv this morning is “huge, it’s huge as political theatre, and political theatre is important in this resistance to the Russian invasion".

“Biden is there showing US support for President Zelensky, but he repeatedly talked about international support for Ukraine, more than 50 countries providing economic and military support and continuing to do so," he tells BBC News.

“There are the practical outcomes to this visit, such as the US commitment to the $500m in military aid.

“But also I think it is setting out the fact that this is not going to be a matter of days or weeks.

“We now know that the first phase of the war has ended really with a Russian defeat.

"Russia hasn’t been able to take Kyiv - again symbolised by Biden’s visit today - they haven’t been able to take over much of the country, they will struggle even with their last-ditch offensive in most of the east. And now we enter the second phase, the second year of the war and how far Ukraine can go with its counter-offensive.”

Alice Cuddy
Reporting from Kyiv

We’ve been getting more reaction from people on the streets of the Ukrainian capital.

Dmytro Yakovets, 26, says the visit is “very important”.

“When a leader of a nation comes, it shows the government supports us and that the people of that country support us,” he says.

“It also helps Ukrainians see that we’re not alone in this war and that such a powerful player in the international arena - as the US is - is supporting us.”

Dmytro adds he thinks the visit has brought Ukraine “closer to victory”.

Europe fights to maintain solidaritypublished at 13:51 Greenwich Mean Time 20 February 2023

13:51 GMT 20 February 2023

Katya Adler
Europe Editor

Joe Biden's surprise visit to Ukraine on Monday is a striking show of solidarity - an intentionally powerful message to Moscow - as Kyiv prepares to mark the grim and bloody one-year anniversary of Russia's invasion.

Ukraine's government was understandably thrilled to see the US president, but - as a professional Europe watcher - one comment stood out for me in particular.

Ukrainian Deputy Foreign Minister Andriy Melnyk celebrated what he described as "the presence of our important, main partner".

Shouldn't that be Europe?

Vladimir Putin's aggressive ambition is a threat to European security first and foremost. His invasion of Ukraine has brought conventional warfare back to this continent on a scale not seen since World War Two.

Read Katya Adler's analysis in full here.